BMW Motorrad has taken an undisclosed stake in Venna, the reorganised Flux Performance, as it looks for a way into electric off-road motorcycles without building one itself.
BMW Motorrad is trying electric motorcycles again, though not with a BMW-badged bike. The Munich firm has invested in Venna, a start-up building high-performance electric off-road machines. Neither side has said how much money is involved or how large BMW’s stake is.
The announcement leaves out one useful detail. Venna is the new name for Flux Performance, a Slovenian company founded in 2021. Flux drew attention in 2022 with a very powerful electric motocross bike, but it has never built a production model.
What BMW Gets, and What Venna Gets
Venna stays independent and will set its own development pace. In return, it can draw on BMW’s experience in development, quality, series production and global business. However, BMW says only that the two will work together in “selected fields”, so the details are still unclear.
BMW’s reasoning is about who is buying. Younger riders increasingly see a motorcycle as sports equipment for their free time rather than transport. The investment lets BMW learn early in a segment where it expects strong growth.
The two companies are very different in size. The BMW Group sold more than 202,500 motorcycles in 2025. Venna has yet to deliver a single one.
The Bike That Never Quite Arrived
Founder Marko Ukota, a former supermoto champion in Slovenia and Italy, still runs the company. He argues that noise is off-road riding’s biggest problem. As an example, he says Belgium has fallen from about 60 motocross tracks in the 1970s to six today.
Flux’s Primo prototype was meant to rival 450cc combustion motocross bikes. According to the company, it made 86hp (63kW) and used a swappable 7kWh, 450-volt battery that could be changed in about a minute. It also offered app-adjustable power, a virtual clutch, a regeneration lever and reverse.
The problem has been the calendar. Production was promised for 2024, then deliveries for 2025, then 2026. Reservations were taken against a €13,000 price, and Flux said the first batch had sold out in 2025.
Now the first new-generation bike is due in January 2027, under the Venna name. It is not yet known whether it will be based on the Primo.
A Familiar Industry Pattern
BMW has paused its road-going electric motorcycle plans, apart from scooters such as the CE 04 and CE 02. Off-road electrification is easier to justify. Rides are short, bikes arrive by van or trailer, and electric motors need little maintenance. Noise rules are also getting tighter.
BMW is not alone in buying in rather than building. Yamaha took a stake in Electric Motion in 2024, and LiveWire gained off-road access through a start-up of its own. Meanwhile, Stark Future’s Varg remains the only electric off-road bike reaching customers in significant numbers.
The Hard Part Is Still Ahead
There is no specification, price or delivery date for a Venna motorcycle. BMW has not announced a BMW-branded electric dirt bike or a factory race team, either.
Flux has never been short of a promising prototype. Where it has stalled is the step from prototype to a bike that can be built, delivered and supported in volume. That is precisely the experience BMW brings, and January 2027 will be the first chance to see whether it has made a difference.
